Complex Product and System’s Project Management Challenges

Complex products and systems (CoPS) are products, systems, services and infrastructure assets that are costly and require advanced technology and are known as capital goods. The technological complexity of CoPS products is an important competitive advantage, which is very important for companies and even governments. As these products are custom-made, the development of these products is considered as projects. In compare to common projects, the difference in the nature of the CoPS products has led to some differences in managing them. In this study, we are going to explore the differences in the CoPS projects and how they are managed by exploring the comprehensive CoPs literature review from the project management perspective. In the initial search, 84 papers were identified. After studying abstracts, the number of related articles was reduced to 22. After studying articles, we classify them and examine how to manage complex product and system projects. According to the results, managing complex product and system projects are diffrented from some aspects such as integration management, communication management, scope management, project planning and control, time and cost management, risk management and stakeholder management in compared with common projects. Organization should consider these differences in managing CoPs projects. The results also indicate that the number of studies carried out on CoPs projects are not very high, especially in Iran. The most important identified gap research is the lack of applied studies in various industries, including communications, defense industries, and so on.